Many years ago, a proposal was made to mount a tent on a motor vehicle in such a way that it could be folded when the vehicle is under way but could be erected when the vehicle stopped and the occupants of the vehicle wished to have sleeping accommodations without leaving the vehicle. An arrangement of that nature is shown in British patent 989,081, published on Apr. 14, 1965 and based upon an earlier application filed in Italy on Mar. 7, 1961. The British patent shows a framework structure supporting the tent atop the motor vehicle. However, the framework leaves much to be desired in the way of strength. Moreover, the weight of the tent and its supporting structure is not balanced on the motor vehicle. One-half the weight of the tent and its supporting platform rests upon a flimsy ladder which may or may not have a firm footing on the ground. Further, when the tent and supporting structure are folded so that the vehicle can be under way, the folded assembly does not present an attractive, "aerodynamically clean" appearance of minimum width atop the vehicle.
Another prior-art approach to the problem of providing a portable shelter assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,856, issued on Jun. 9, 1981 to Robert W. Ferguson. As in the case of the aforementioned British patent, Ferguson provides a two part hinged container for the tent. The container unfolds to form a flat deck when the tent is erected above a vehicle. However, there is no indication that the folding tent of Ferguson is balanced atop the vehicle. The mode of support of Ferguson's shelter assembly is not spelled out in his patent. The frame members which support the folding tent of Ferguson are external to the tent and are deployed in such a way that rain water would tend to gather around the frame members and also at the edges of the horizontal deck formed by the two parts of the hinged container.
A third prior-art approach to the problem of providing a portable tent for mounting on top of a vehicle is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,036, granted on May 16, 1989 to Charles W. Sanders. The Sanders patent, once again, shows a platform that can be folded to form a container and unfolded to form a deck for the tent. Atop the deck are mounted a pair of hinged arch-like frames which in turn support a tent canopy of tubular form reminiscent of the fabric covers of the Conestoga wagons of pioneer history Sanders provides only a single pair of arch frames to support the tent canopy. Moreover, once again, the deck or platform on which the tent is mounted is not balanced on the vehicle which is to carry it. Rather, the weight of one-half of the tent platform, and of any persons reclining thereon, depends for its support upon a ladder which may or may not be sufficiently strong and well anchored to carry that burden Sanders does not show a tent container which is minimized in transverse cross section and which is "aerodynamically clean" so as to minimize aerodynamic drag when the vehicle is in motion. Thus it appears that the prior art, as represented by the three aforementioned patent references, is deficient in one or more important ways.